


Four-Man Team

by Dark_Lady_of_the_Night



Category: Rose Gun Days (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Memories, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:20:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24233479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Lady_of_the_Night/pseuds/Dark_Lady_of_the_Night
Summary: The future for the Wandering Dogs might seem obscure and full of difficulties, but they knew one thing for sure - no matter what, they would always be the team.
Relationships: Oliver Oribe/Zel
Kudos: 2





	Four-Man Team

One of those nights before the day when the plan related to the rescue of her father was going to be implemented Zel couldn’t fall asleep. She gave up the futile attempts to dive into the sleep and got out of her bed, starting to wander through the corridors, empty and particularly gloomy at such time, in the building that was graciously provided to them by Meijiu as a refuge. As she was walking past a row of the faceless rooms, whose doors were shut tightly with their outlines barely noticeable in the dense dark, Zel remembered what had been going on inside those rooms during a day. As for that one, it seemed that Charles had been training there, and as for the other one, Oliver had been practicing his skills there being supervised by Meijiu in person. Wait… the light was leaking through the door of the very same room, wasn’t it?

Zel entered the room and looked around it with a caution. First of all, her eyes caught sight of pieces of furniture and the things that Oliver used during his trainings. The dim light of the small lamp illumined the space only slightly, but she finally managed to notice, in the corner of the room that was sinking in the shadows, a silhouette of someone sitting right on the floor and almost merging into the wall against which he was leaning.

“Oliver?”

He started and looked up at her.

“Zel…” he mumbled faintly, almost as if she had woken him up. Zel gave a smile.

“Decided to engage in one more training at this time of night? That’s a bad idea. You’d better go to bed.”

Oliver shook his head in protest.

“I’m gonna stay here for a while more. Don’t worry about me.”

Although he said so, he could hardly keep his eyes open, and it was obvious that by carrying on like that he would end up falling on the floor and sleeping right there, in that room. Zel leaned toward him and gently touched his shoulder.

“Listen to me. You need to recuperate. And by the way, I’ve seen you training in the recent days – you already can do everything very well. So it’s twice as pointless for you to exhaust yourself that much.”

“That’s not the case…” Oliver murmured indistinctly. Perplexed, Zel tilted her head to the side. However, before she managed to ask anything, Oliver moved his head abruptly, as if trying to drive away his sleepiness, and then he looked at her with a smile.

“And what are you doing here at such time? You’ve come not to search for me, right?”

“If only I'd known what you'd been doing instead of sleeping, I would've come a long time ago.” Zel smiled at him in response. “But… I just can’t fall asleep.”

She let out a heavy sigh. Oliver patted the spot on the floor beside him.

“Then you can stay.”

Zel gave a broader smile and seated herself by Oliver’s side, leaning against his shoulder. He turned his head to her in such a way that she could feel his breath right above her pate.

“What prevents you from sleeping? Some thoughts?”

“Yes. I’m constantly thinking of what we’re supposed to do quite soon. I’m… so worried. Just can’t calm down.”

Zel brought her knees closer to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, firmly interlocking her fingers. Oliver put his arm around her shoulders and started to speak in a mild tone uncharacteristic of him. “We’ll surely cope with it. You can see – we do everything possible for that. Believe in us. Together we’ll definitely rescue your father.”

“I do believe,” the corners of Zel’s lips twitched, forming a faint smile. “I believe, but…” for a moment she cast a look at Oliver, and then she looked down again, “to be honest, that’s not what I’m concerned about the most.”

“Then about what?” Oliver asked, surprised. Zel raised her head and looked him in the eyes.

“I’m concerned about all of you. About you, and Nina, and Charles. You all risk so much for my sake. But anything can happen.” She turned around, feeling a lump in her throat – she swallowed, trying to suppress the emotional outburst that was about to come out. Oliver’s hand slid down her back.

“I’ve told you… I mean, we’ve told you – that we’re ready to do everything for you. We know the risks pretty well.”

“Do you really think it helps to calm me down?” Zel exclaimed, turning abruptly to Oliver – he leaned back slightly, being taken aback. “I…” she averted her eyes, her lips twitched, “if someone of you gets hurt, I’ll never forgive myself for that…”

“Zel…”

“And I know,” she looked at Oliver once again with her eyes full of undisguised anxiety, “that you’re the one the most inclined to sacrificing yourself. That’s why, when this day comes… please, remember that you should survive in the first place!”

For a moment, Oliver stared at her, his eyes widened in surprise – and then he turned around without replying. His face noticeably darkened.

“What’s wrong, Oliver?” Zel became alarmed. He gave a wry smile.

“Well, nothing much. I’ve just remembered that lately I constantly have the same dream.”

“A nightmare?” Zel supposed. Why else could he talk about it with such an expression?

“Not really. I see you, Charles and Nina. You all look the way you usually do, and you behave like you usually do. In short, you do the same things that we could do in reality. And you three look so natural it makes me forget that this is a dream.”

“Wait.” Zel noticed something. “You don’t see yourself as if from the outside?”

“Not only that I don’t see,” Oliver twisted his lips, still in the same smile, “I don’t even feel that I’m with all of you. I’m just not there. And you all don’t think that someone is missing. As if it’s a normal thing.”

Zel felt her blood run cold. She just created in her mind the image of what Oliver had described, but that was enough to feel immediately the stinky, nasty sweat covering her back.

“So that’s why you’re sitting here,” she stated, and Oliver nodded.

“I don’t want to see that again,” he leaned his head back, touching the wall with the back of his head, and gave some kind of distant smile. “I know I’ll eventually have to anyway, but… I want to buy as much time as I can.”

Zel was silent, trying to come up with a way to calm him down now. If she told him that those were just dreams that had nothing to do with the real life, he would hardly find it convincing. She wouldn’t find it so as well.

In the end, she just snuggled up to him, burying her face in his shoulder – that made him flinch slightly, but he didn’t say a word.

“I promise I’ll make sure in person that nothing will happen to you,” she said in a quiet voice. And then she felt Oliver smile against her pate.

“I’m sorry. I only make you get more nervous.”

Silence hung in the room. Both of them remained in the same position, snuggling up to each other and listening to the steady heartbeat in the other’s ribcage. Quietness and warmth coming from the body close to her wrapped her up and strangely steadied her nerves – to the point that Zel even began to think she could fall asleep that way, with him by her side. All of a sudden Oliver gave a quiet laugh, slightly disturbing that idyll between them.

“All of this is probably because of me being like you’ve said. I’ll do everything to survive, honestly. I’ll be careful and reasonable to the maximum. I've been listening to everything you say for a long time already, you know that.”

Zel smiled, still without lifting up her head, and snuggled up closer to him.

“That’s right, good boy.”

Oliver said nothing, but Zel felt his body tense a little – apparently, now he started to feel embarrassed by so close presence of another person. She giggled and pulled away, looking at him – on the contrary, he looked away at once.

“By the way, I wouldn’t say that your dreams resemble reality.”

Oliver stared at her in confusion, and Zel explained. “Because we are the four-man team. And if one of us was gone, the others just couldn’t be the same as usual, as if nothing had happened. And definitely wouldn’t forget the one who had been with us before. Without one of us the team can’t be full-fledged, and each of us is indispensable.”

She never took her eyes off Oliver while she was speaking, and she saw his tense features smooth out bit by bit, his eyes clear, and his lips form a soft smile.

“Yes, you’re probably right.”

Next moment he held her close, with his hands wrapped around her waist, and Zel exhaled abruptly, forgetting to inhale again. Goose bumps ran over her skin as Oliver buried his face in her hair and whispered close to her ear, “Thank you. Everything you say is so soothing for some reason.”

And that was when Zel felt yearning that almost made her innards twist up.

She already knew that Oliver was more than a friend for her, but she was absolutely contented with everything as it was, while she could spend her time with him, talk with him, sometimes hug him and, on occasion, stay so close to him that she could feel him with her skin – just like recently, when there wasn’t even a millimeter of distance between them. Now she thought for a first time that he could feel the same way about her. And that was… not good at all.

With great difficulty, Zel suppressed the wish to tell him about her feelings. She just hugged him around the shoulders as she nuzzled his neck, feeling that action made the goose bumps appear on his skin now. He would probably reciprocate, but that was exactly the reason why she should stay silent. If the coming operation to free her father from the captivity completed successfully – it just couldn’t complete another way – her father and she would have to leave the country at the earliest opportunity and go as far as possible. Of course, Zel wanted to believe that one day she would have a chance to come back there, but without knowing for sure how everything would turn out in the future, she preferred to neither make any promises nor give false hopes.

And still, she yielded to an impulse and leaned toward Oliver’s face, giving him a light kiss upon the cheek, right at the corner of his lips. The reaction was immediate – he leaned back abruptly, staring at her in shock.

“What…?” he couldn’t even finish the question, turning red to the tips of his ears. Zel laughed and got up from the floor, reaching out for him.

“That’s for you to have something to think about when you go to bed. Maybe your dreams will be different then. Let’s go,” she smiled as Oliver hesitantly put his hand in hers and got on his feet. “It’s long overdue for us to go to sleep – tomorrow will be another hard day.”

And just a second before she turned around to the door, she noticed a smile on his lips – she thought it was an understanding smile.

He probably needed some more time to understand his feelings completely. That was when Zel decided – if she really came back to Japan someday and Oliver let her know that his feelings for her were still the same, she would surely confess her love to him. And if the fortune smiled upon them, perhaps they would even be able to stay together. Certainly, it would be the best variant among all the possibilities.

However, if upon her return it turned out that he already got rid of those feelings, it wouldn’t be that bad at all. She would even prefer to see him with another person who would hold that inmost place in his heart instead of her. All those things would be much better than…

Watching so familiar name and the years of birth and death engraved on the cold tombstone.

Someone called out to her, and Zel felt as if she was woken up. The sound around her turned on, she could hear again talks, laughter and quiet clattering of dishes in the bar that served as a meeting place for the Wild Dogs. The recollection dissipated like a dream as she looked up at one of those guys who gathered around the table and answered his question without forgetting to give a usual smile. Then the others’ attention shifted to someone else, and she immersed in her thoughts once again. Unlike the others, she felt her euphoria after the successful end of the crucial fight at the graveyard was gone long ago, and now there was only one question ringing in her head: what’s next?

She wanted to stay there. That was _her_ country, and _her_ countrymen lived in it. There were her real, the most loyal friends, the ones who she had experienced so much with. Those two were sitting next to her now and having a lively chat, replying endlessly to the questions of the curious ones about their incredible victory over Maurice Monobe. Their faces shone with the contented smiles, and their eyes gleamed with the undisguised pride for their own success. They attracted all the attention to themselves, so nobody was really concerned about the distance of the Wandering Dogs’ leader. Wayne was probably the only one who noticed that – he mainly listened to his subordinates’ stories and talked very little. Zel often felt his glance gliding over her and for some reason she was sure that he knew all of her thoughts.

She wished her father could also come back there and stay. If only it was a possible thing, she would have nothing more to wish for. All the dear ones by her side, the life in the homeland… she had to admit that in times like those it was still just a wonderful dream for her – the one that would apparently remain a dream forever. In other words, she had to go. Back to that country far away from there, where her father was waiting for her.

She felt her chest tightening when she looked at Charles and Nina who had no idea about her decision yet. They definitely wouldn’t be happy about another parting after the long-awaited reunion. But…

_I’m sorry, guys. The four-man team is going to be left with only a half of it._

“Wait, so you’ve decided that for sure?”

A bit of concern could be heard in Charles’s voice. He looked at Zel as if expecting that she would change her mind now, or that she would begin to doubt at least – and she looked away, feeling awkward. By that time many of their comrades had already gone or scattered to different corners of the bar, so three friends finally could have a cozy chat, sitting around the small table. That was when Zel told them about her intention to leave Japan in the near future and suggested that they spent together the last days of her stay there.

“And what did you expect, baby Charles?” Nina said with a smile while Zel couldn’t choose her words to answer. “You know that, it’s dangerous for Zel to stay in this country.”

Charles looked at Nina, being a bit confused, and then he lowered his head.

“Yes, I know,” he mumbled, biting his lip, “but…”

The phrase wasn’t continued, but there was no need to do that – the three of them felt intuitively that the further discussion of that matter would only make inevitable parting more painful. After the short silence Zel looked at her friends and suddenly gave a broad smile.

“You know, we don’t say goodbye for good. We’ll definitely see each other again someday. And until that time I will write to you, and you will also tell me about the progress you make. I’m going to give you my address.”

Charles and Nina smiled, but no matter how much they tried, their smiles weren’t cheerful at all – those were the forced ones instead.

“Well, that’s better than like it was before,” Charles remarked.

“Haha, for sure,” Nina agreed. “Last time we lacked so much connection with you.”

The corners of Zel’s lips twitched down. She knew that and she had already regretted more than once that it had turned out like that back then. But she would be _late_ all the same anyway.

“Now everything will be different,” Zel tried to smile again, but that time her smile resembled the smile of her friends. “Make sure to tell me about everything that you experience, share your worries with me… write everything that you would tell me face-to-face. And… whatever happens, I ask you to be careful in the first place.”

When the two looked at her with their eyes wide open, she lowered her eyes. That last phrase just came out of her mouth, and certainly, they couldn’t fail to feel what those words meant.

“We will,” Nina replied, and Zel looked up at her, “but the same goes for you too. We ask you for the same thing, am I right, Charles?”

Surprise in Charles’s eyes lasted for a moment before it was quickly replaced with understanding, and he nodded at Nina with a smile. Then he turned his eyes to Zel.

“Exactly. And don’t forget that wherever you are, you’ll always be a part of our team… our leader.”

“Yes, you all are right. Thank you, guys.”

Zel noticed that her friends’ eyes started to shine with tears, and that helped her finally realize that she was crying as well. She wiped the wet traces off her cheeks with a quick movement and leaned forward, hugging Charles and Nina around their necks, with their faces close to one another. Charles couldn’t help sniffing.

“Will you ever come back for real?”

“Don’t ask about that,” Nina shushed him. “How can Zel promise that now?”

As she closed her eyes, Zel pressed her forehead against the heads of those two who she was going to part with quite soon, probably for good. She couldn’t say it aloud, but they felt it anyway and that was why they were crying with her now. They understood all the circumstances very well so they didn’t try to stop her, even though they really wanted to do that. Once more they had to say goodbye to their comrade, once more they became one fewer. But that time, at least, it was not death that did them part.

No one of them said a word, but everyone wondered about the same thing at that moment.

If _he_ were there with them now, everything would be exactly the same?

The evening get-together in the bar and considerable amount of alcohol consumed resulted in partially sleepless night, so when Charles woke up next morning, the sun already shone brightly behind the window and its beams were persistently making their way to the corner of the room where he curled up on his hurriedly made up bed on the floor. He lazily turned around, looking to the opposite corner where he expected to see his friends – but both of them weren’t there.

“Nina! Zel!”

There was no answer. Charles sat up, looking around anxiously. The bed in which the girls had slept was neatly made, their clothes couldn’t be seen somewhere nearby – there was only his clothing on the floor. Could they have gone somewhere without him? Why would they have done that? Besides, hadn’t they decided to spend all day together?

“Nina!” he shouted louder. “Zel! Why the hell did you leave me out in the cold?”

He could hear the steps in the corridor, and soon in the doorway disgruntled Nina appeared, with her hair wrapped up in a towel; she tightened the belt of her bathrobe.

“Why are you yelling across the apartment? I let you stay here yesterday not for you scaring all the neighbors with your screams now. And yeah,” she softened the tone of her voice, replacing the frown with a smile, “who do you think left you out in the cold?”

“Oh, so you’re here,” Charles exhaled with relief. “And where is Zel?”

“She went long ago while you were still sleeping like a log,” Nina sat on the made up bed as she started to rub her wet hair hard with a towel.

“Went where?” Charles asked with a caution. Nina sighed, averting her eyes.

“To Oliver, I think.”

“Ah…”

Charles cut himself short. Of course, he thought, she decided to spend some time with her friends before they part, so Oliver was supposed to receive a part of that time as well.

“Maybe we should go there too?”

“No need,” Nina shook her head. “She probably went so early exactly to stay there alone. And to avoid our unnecessary questions,” she added, giving a little smile.

Charles looked down. He was silent for a while before he smiled faintly all of a sudden, lying back on his crumpled bed.

“What d’you think, maybe we should tell her? That he would talk about her so often, and that he always tried to make progress for her praise in the first place, instead of big bro Wayne’s praise? That he'd been waiting for her return… no, we probably shouldn’t tell her that.”

Charles cast a look at Nina, noticing that she looked at him with a slightly condescending smile.

“I think she understands how he felt about her.”

That morning turned to be rather cold and cloudy. Not that it wasn’t a typical weather for such an hour and such a season, and still there, at the graveyard, the air temperature felt considerably colder than outside of that place. Zel quivered and quickened her steps a little, walking past a row of similar headstones, and the attentive one could see almost identical years of birth and death engraved on them – at least, the year and even the day of death were the same on each of them. Yes, that was a place of burial for all the boys from the Wild Dogs team who on that cursed day had to become, without being aware, the pointless sacrifice in implementation of the reckless and equally heinous plan of their allies. Zel wasn’t going to blame or hate anyone for the things done anymore, all the more so because everyone who was involved in that seemed to be dead by that time. Moreover, the situation that had recently taken place effectively helped to realize that rancor hidden inside and refusal to let go of past resentments led to nothing more than devastation of one’s soul.

All that she had left were the precious memories and feelings, and she would never let them be painted dark color.

“Still, we’ve avenged you yesterday, Oliver – you and all the others.”

Zel bent down and laid the flowers on his grave – she was squeezing that bouquet in her cold hands all that time. Then she got down on her knees. The soil near the grave was slightly wet, probably because of rain that had been pouring last night. There was no trace of yesterday’s cruel battle left, and there was an astonishing serenity in that place, as if it had always been like that.

“I can’t say that I don’t feel better after that,” Zel continued. “But… nothing can bring you back in this world. And nothing can bring me back in that moment from two years ago so that I have time to tell you that…”

She fell silent and lowered her head, tears started to run down her cheeks. Yes, memories were all that she had left, but they caused pain, breaking her fragile calm in a moment. She didn’t know if she would ever be able to cope with her regrets about what she hadn’t done in the past, and about her dreams that certainly would never come true anymore.

“That I…” as she suppressed another sob in its beginning, Zel breathed in deeply, “I love you. And I’ve… never felt this before.”

_And I don’t know if it’s possible for me to feel this again._

She stayed in that position for a while more – until her legs got too cold due to wet soil. Then she rose, dusting off the bottom of her dress, and took a few steps back, still looking at the tombstone in front of her.

“The thing I know for sure is that I’ll never forget you. And these feelings for you are something that I don’t want to forget no matter what. Even though it hurts,” Zel brushed the tears away from her face and smiled as brightly as she only could, “I want to remember it forever.”

And then she started as she suddenly felt something, the smile died on her lips. Her heart started to beat faster because of too distinct obsessive thought that someone was standing behind her. She didn’t dare to turn around and called out in a quavered voice, “Oliver? Do you hear me?”

She could swear that when the gust of wind suddenly blew through the graveyard that had been windless until that time, she heard the quiet “yes.”

Zel shook her head. No, seriously, what had she just imagined? No matter how much she wished for that, the dead couldn’t appear like that among the living, in broad daylight. She was ready to turn around just to make sure with her own eyes that there was no one in that place except her.

And she felt her heart almost stop when she heard very distinct sound of someone’s steps behind her. That definitely wasn’t an illusion – quiet in the beginning, those steps became louder and louder as they approached her. Zel suppressed her shiver and got up the courage as she turned around abruptly, ready to face the one who stood behind her, whoever it was.

When she met Wayne’s eyes – that time he was dressed in the very same white suit that she had often seen him wearing in former times – Zel could hardly suppress the sigh of relief.

Wayne noticed the name on the grave behind her back and immediately guessed that she was there to say goodbye. Zel confirmed his assumption with a smile while thinking about the possible reasons for Wayne to come there at such an hour. Even though he was the first to approach her to greet, he apparently felt uncomfortable because of being not the only one at the graveyard, so he averted his eyes trying to avoid her direct look. For him, each of the boys that had been buried there was special, and it could be that he still wasn’t able to put up with their deaths, possibly even blaming himself for that. Of course, Zel didn’t say aloud any of those things. No matter how Wayne felt now, he definitely had no need of her comments or sympathy. The best thing she could do was just to leave him alone.

She didn’t expect that Wayne would continue the conversation – he asked about her opinion of the new madam and of her capabilities. Zel answered honestly. While admitting that madam Jeanne had certain abilities and merits, Zel still couldn’t believe that she would be able to make major changes to the situation that took place in that country and particularly in that city. No one would be able to do that, even the most strong and persistent leader – not in the times when their nation represented the minority oppressed by the foreigners that had seized power.

But Wayne started to speak about his belief in Jeanne and intention to support her all the time, and he was doing that so firmly and resolutely that it made Zel stare at him with her eyes wide open. She had already lost all hope, but he wasn’t going to give up – now he seemed to be even more determined to fight than ever before. Wayne was probably a bit embarrassed due to her eyes looking at him, so he looked away, but still determination in his voice didn’t falter in the slightest.

“What if we really manage to change something? For example, to make sure that every Japanese person feels safe here? If I tell you that this is one of our goals, will you believe in us and rely on our power?”

He asked her that question as he finally looked into her eyes, and Zel smiled at him struggling with a lump stuck in her throat that made her eyes well up. Her feelings were ambivalent. On the one hand, she realized very well how awful things were going in Japan now, and that her father and she wouldn’t have an opportunity to be there for many, many years after, but... while she was looking at Wayne who stated his will to help them so confidently, she wanted to believe in that miracle he told her about.

So she replied in all sincerity that she would be waiting for that moment to come.

When Zel came back to Nina’s apartment, two friends were taken aback by her contented smile and cheerful mood. They thought she shouldn’t be like that, given the place she came from, and still… what could have happened to cheer her up so much?

“Woke up already, huh? Let’s go then. We have not so much time left, and we should do so many things. We’re gonna visit every place you want, maybe we’ll even buy something. Or we’ll just have fun at least. Come on, hurry up!”

Nina was the first to wake from a stupor and jump up from her seat.

“Sure! We’ve been ready for a long time, just been waiting for you!” she smiled.

Zel smiled back and came out of the room, walking through the corridor; soon her steps could be heard at the entrance door. Stunned, Charles turned to Nina and uttered in a quiet voice, “What’s with her?”

“Hehe,” she gave a strange, slightly nervous laugh, “I don’t know. But anyway, I’m glad she’s in such a state.”

“You’re right,” Charles smiled, staring after his friend that had walked away. “I like her being like this too. It reminds me of former times. And even though Oliver isn’t with us anymore, with her I feel somewhat… better. I wish she wouldn’t leave.”

“You and I, we’ll have to hold out here somehow, just two of us,” Nina gave a little smile, wincing a bit as she felt a bitterness spilling in her mouth. “Well, let’s get a move on, baby Charles. I think we’re delaying our goddess of fortune.”

They hastened to the entrance door, and soon the three went outside where everything was lit up by the bright, warm beams of the morning sun.

They were resilient and cheerful; they were the team that would always be bound by strong, unbreakable ties.

And even if one of them couldn’t be beside them, that one was in everyone’s heart and memory.


End file.
